BUSINESS STUDIES

NAME- ARGHA JAIN

CLASS- 11E
ADMIN NO- 4322
SCHOOL- MOUNT CARMEL SCHOOL
INDIAN STARTUP
 ABOUT PAYTM
• Paytm is India's largest leading payment gateway that • Paytm is an Indian e-commerce payment system and
offers comprehensive payment services for customer and digital wallet company, based out of NOIDA SEZ, India.
merchants. It offer mobile payment solutions to over 7
million merchants and allow consumers to make seamless
• TYPE OF BUSINESS: PUBLIC
mobile payments from Cards, Bank Accounts and Digital • CEO: Renu Satti (23 May 2017–TILL DATE)
Credit among others. It pioneered and they are the leader
of QR based mobile payments in India. With the launch of • Founder: Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Paytm Payments Bank, they aim to bring banking and • Founded: 2010
financial services to half-a-billion un-served and under-
served Indians . Their investors include Softbank, SAIF • Revenue: 3,314 crores INR (US$480 million, 2018)
Partners, Alibaba Group and Ant Financial. They strive to • Headquarters location: Noida
maintain an open culture where everyone is a hands-on
contributor and feels comfortable sharing ideas and • Parent organization: One97 Communications
opinions. Their team spends hours, designing each new
feature and obsesses about the smallest of details.
 HOW IT ALL STARTED
• Paytm was founded in August 2010 with an initial investment of $2 million by its founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma in NOIDA, a region
adjacent to India's capital New Delhi. It started off as a prepaid mobile and DTH recharge platform, and later added data card,
postpaid mobile and landline bill payments in 2013.

• By January 2014, the company launched the Paytm Wallet, and the Indian Railways and Uber added it as a payment option. It
launched into E-commerce with online deals and bus ticketing. In 2015, it unveiled more use-cases like education fees, metro
recharges, electricity, gas, and water bill payments. It also started powering the payment gateway for Indian Railways.

• In 2016, Paytm launched movies, events and amusement parks ticketing as well as flight ticket bookings and Paytm QR. Later that
year, it launched rail bookings and gift cards.

• Paytm's registered user base grew from 11.8 million in August 2014 to 104 million in August 2015. Its travel business crossed $500
million in annualised GMV run rate, while booking 2 million tickets per month.

• In 2017, Paytm became India's first payment app to cross over 100 million app downloads. The same year, it launched Paytm Gold, a
product that allowed users to buy as little as ₹1 of pure gold online. It also launched the Paytm Payments Bank and ‘Inbox’, a
messaging platform with in-chat payments among other products. By 2018, it started allowing merchants to accept Paytm, UPI and
Card payments directly into their bank accounts at 0% charge. It also launched the ‘Paytm for Business’ app, allowing merchants to
track their payments and day-to-day settlements instantly. This led its merchant base to grow to more than 7 million by March 2018.

• The company launched two new wealth management products - Paytm Gold Savings Plan and Gold Gifting to simplify long-term
savings. It launched into gaming and investments, partnering with AGTech to launch a mobile games platform Gamepind and setting
up Paytm Money with an investment of ₹9 Crores to bring investment and wealth management products for the Indians.
 FUNDING
• In 2007, Paytm's parent One97 Communications Ltd. got its first institutional investor, venture capital firm SAIF
Partners.
• In October 2011, Sapphire Ventures (fka SAP Ventures) invested $10 million in Paytm's parent One97
Communications Ltd.
• In March 2015, Paytm received its funding from Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group based
in Hangzhou, China , after Ant Financial Services Group, an Alibaba Group affiliate, took 40% stake in One97 as
part of a strategic agreement. Soon after, it received backing from Ratan Tata, the MD of Tata sons.
• It subsequently launched a ‘Paytm for Business’ app in 10 regional languages of India, allowing these merchants to
track their payments and day-to-day settlements conveniently. In August 2015, the Reserve Bank of India granted
'in-principle' approval for Payments Bank to Paytm. In 2017, the company launched the Paytm Payments Bank with
the aim to bring banking and financial services access to half-a-billion un-served and under-served Indians.
• The same year, Paytm launched an app for Canadian mobile phone, cable, Internet, electricity and water bill
payments . In 2018, it set up Paytm Money to build investment and wealth management offerings for its users. This
business was expected to bring direct mutual funds and money-market funds to the Indian masses. In August 2016,
Paytm raised funding from Mountain Capital, one of Taiwan-based MediaTek's investment funds at a valuation of
over $5 billion.
• In May 2017, Paytm received its biggest round of funding by a single investor – SoftBank which also has a large
stake in Alibaba, thus bringing the company's valuation to an estimated $10 billion. In August 2018, Berkshire
Hathaway invested $356 million for 3%- 4% stake in Paytm, although Berkshire Hathaway confirmed that Warren
Buffett was not involved in the transaction.
INVESTMENTS AND ACQUISITIONS SPONSORSHIP

• In 2013, Paytm acquired Plustxt for around less than $2 • In July 2015, One97 Communications, the firm that
million. Plustxt was started by IIT Graduates Pratyush owns the brand Paytm, acquired the title sponsorship
Prasanna, Parag Arora, Lokesh Chauhan and Lohit V that rights for India's domestic and international cricket
allowed fast texting messaging in any Indian Language.
matches at home for a period of four years starting in
• In 2015, Paytm invested $5 million in auto-rickshaw August 2015. The rights include sponsor branding of
aggregator and hyperlocal delivery firm Jugnoo. The funds series with the title sponsor logo, designation as the
were meant to enable Jugnoo to scale up its operations across title sponsor of the series, visibility at the stadium, and
the country, and improve its driver efficiency. It also acquired
broadcast sponsorship rights. This also includes
Delhi-based consumer behaviour prediction platform Shifu and
local services startup Near in. all BCCI domestic (Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy etc.)
matches in India.
• In 2016, Paytm invested in logistics startups LogiNext and
XpressBees. • Previously, Paytm had acquired sponsorship rights
during the 8th season of Indian Premier League. It has
• In April 2017, Paytm invested in healthcare startup QorQL
which uses artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to help also served as an associate sponsor on Sony
doctors improve their productivity and quality of care, and TV network (which has the telecast rights for IPL) and
enable patients to manage their health better. In July 2017, it was the official partner of the IPL team Mumbai
acquired a majority stake in online ticketing and events Indians. In March 2018, Paytm became the Umpire
platform Insider.in, backed by event management company Partner of the IPL for five years.
Only Much Louder (OML) and mobile loyalty startup
MobiQuest. The same year, Paytm acquired Little & Nearbuy,
and merged both.
• In June 2018 the company acquired the startup Cube26.
PAYTM PAYMENTS BANK PAYTM MALL
• In August 2015, Paytm received a license from • In February 2017, Paytm launched its Paytm Mall
Reserve Bank of India to launch a payments app, which allows consumers to shop from 1.4 lakh
bank. The Paytm Payments Bank is a separate registered sellers. Paytm mall is B2C model inspired
entity in which founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma will by model of China's largest B2C retail platform
hold 51% share, One97 Communications holds TMall. For 1.4 lakh sellers registered products have
39% and 10% will be held by a subsidiary of to pass through, Paytm-certified warehouses and
One97 and Sharma. The bank was officially channels to ensure consumer trust. Paytm mall has
inaugurated in November 2017 by the Indian set up 17 fulfillment centers across India and
Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley. The inauguration partnered with 40+ couriers. Paytm Mall raised
ceremony featured prominent banking personalities $200 million from Alibaba Group and SAIF
including former RBI Executive Director PV Bhaskar, Partners in March, 2018. In May 2018, it posted a
Saama Capital Director Ash Lilani and loss of approximately Rs 1,800 crore with a
former Shriram Group Director GS Sundarajan. revenue of Rs 774 crore for financial year 2018.
Additionally, the market share of Paytm Mall
• It was set to launch over 100,000 banking outlets dropped to 3 percent in 2018 from 5.6 percent in
across India by end of 2018.
2017.
• Paytm Payments Bank has appointed veteran
banker Satish Kumar Gupta as its new Managing
Director and CEO.
 EXPANSION PLANS SUCCESS AND AWARDS
• Last year Paytm’s market share among the e- • Paytm is enjoying unprecedented success; it has won accolades across the globe for
work in the field of digital payment and e-commerce developers. Here is a list of
payment companies was 26%. Paytm is now awards and recognition bagged by Paytm in 2017:

planning to explore new avenues. By 2020, • 1. The Diamond SABRE Award in Company of the Year at SABRE Awards 2017
2. The Diamond SABRE Award in Superior Achievement In Reputation Management
Paytm plans to tap the loan market and disburse at SABRE Awards 2017
3. The Gold SABRE Award in Financial Professional Services at SABRE Awards 2017
small loans to 500 million people. 4. Vijay Shekhar Sharma was recognized among the 50 Most Influential Young
Indians by GQ
• The Paytm Payment Bank was launched in May 5. Vijay Shekhar Sharma won at Entrepreneur India Awards 2017
6. Vijay Shekhar Sharma was listed in the 2017 Time 100 List of Most Influential
2017. A 5-member board committee has been People in the World
formed to expand the physical presence of the 7. Vijay Shekhar Sharma was recognized as the Entrepreneur of the Year at The
Entrepreneur’s Moneytech Awards 2017
Payment Banks. 8. Vijay Shekhar Sharma was announced Data Quest IT Person of the Year
9. Vijay Shekhar Sharma won the Forbes Top 40 Under 40 Award
• Paytm is also planning to give WhatsApp a run 10. The Best Digital Wallet award at the 11th IAMAI India Digital Summit
11. The Best Consumer Mobile Service award at the 11th IAMAI India Digital Summit
for their money by launching a chat app with
• Paytm is determined to improve their products and services and enhance customer
more sophisticated features. Paytm acquired experience. Their dedicated team tirelessly works to improve each feature no
matter how small it may be. The Paytm team always endeavors to add small and
Shifu and Near.in to improve and strengthen its incremental yet effective features that have ensured that it stays as the preferred
offline and online platform and enhance digital payment platform among users. Paytm has proved to be a paragon in the
field of ecommerce website developers and its meteoric rise in popularity has
customer experience. inspired others to follow suit.
 PAYTM SUCCESS STORY REVOLUTION AND GROWTH
• Two words that come to almost every Indian’s mind • Paytm is a Reserve Bank of India (RBI)-approved e-wallet, i.e., the user’s money is secured
under the Escrow account with a nationalized bank. The security feature and easy user
while Shopping, Post demonetization, are “Paytm interface make Paytm the most favored digital payment platform in India. Paytm uses
Verisign-certified SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) 128-bit encryption technology. This ensures
karo.” Paytm has brought a paradigm shift in the retail that the online information of the user, i.e., the password and other financial details, is safe,
industry by completely transforming the payment thus providing greater protection to users.

methodology. Initially, this online wallet cum e-commerce • This online payment system is not only secure but also robust.One of Paytm Success Story is
it can handle around 5000 transactions per second. A high capacity of transactions has
website was used to make payments for limited utilities been made possible by the implementation of a very simple yet effective and safe
payment method. Users can simply pay by either scanning a QR code of the shop or by
like mobile and DTH recharge and shopping bills. Over entering the mobile number of the recipient. The Paytm wallet also has an option where a
the years, this portal has expanded its scope and has user can either safely park his or her money in the application and pay from the money in
the wallet or pay directly from the bank via the application. The combination of secure
brought about anything and everything under the ambit transactions and high capacity has made Paytm one of the most favored payment
applications. More and more number of people are now using Paytm to pay for their daily
of its operations. Customers now can recharge their utilities and other expenses.
metro card, pay bills for utilities like electricity and • The popularity of Paytm was boosted by the government’s decision of demonetization.
water, transfer funds to other bank accounts, book Demonetization forced people to switch to either plastic money or a digital payment
method. This helped Paytm to further consolidate their position in the domain of e-payment
flight/train/bus tickets, make hotel reservations, etc. application. Recent surveys show that Paytm has surpassed similar payment applications
Now the latest Paytm Succes Story is everexpanding such as Mobikwik, Freecharge, and other ecommerce app developers in terms of both the
number of users and the revenue generated.
with the addition of e-retail and m-commerce stores.
• One of the unique features of Paytm Success Story is that it is not only popular in cities but
This gives the option to small vendors to list their also equally popular in small towns and villages. Slowly and steadily it is becoming the
products on the website and allows them to expand favored mode of payment among masses.

their customer base.

 CONTROVERSY
Sonia Dhawan, the secretary of Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar, was arrested for
allegedly trying to extort the latter for Rs 10 crore. Dhawan allegedly leaked
the company’s confidential information to her accomplices Rupak Jain and
Devendra Kumar, allegedly passing on the data to a fourth man, Rohit
Chomal. But who is Sonia Dhawan? Let’s take a peek into her life.
Dhawan started her career in the company as Vijay’s secretary and joined
Paytm in January 2010. Her LinkedIn profile says that she had earlier
worked as Business Operations Manager and Corporate Officer in Times
Internet and Cairn India. She, who held 1400 shares in Paytm as of
November 2017, reportedly earned Rs 85 lakh per annum.

According to one of her Facebook posts, when Paytm won ‘company of the
year’ at SABRE PR awards in Hong Kong in 2017, she credits the triumph to
‘Sahab and our awesome team.’
Sonia, whose Facebook and Twitter bio states ‘Hard work is glory,
everything else is theory’, commented on the on-going controversy saying,
“There is more to it than meets the eye”.

On the other hand, her mother Rama Dhawan said that the controversy is a
result of a ‘conflict, both personal and professional, between Sonia and
Vijay.’